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Morin Leblanc felt like ‘a monster who killed’

Author of the article:

Gary Dimmock • Ottawa Citizen

Publishing date:

February 21, 2014 • 3 minute read

OTTAWA — More than two years after he hit and killed Alexandra Dodger as she crossed St. Patrick Street around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 15, 2011, Maxime Morin Leblanc stood up in court on Thursday, turned to her family, apologized and said she will “be with me all my life.”

He breathed hard and held back tears as he looked at Dodger’s grieving family. They sobbed and kept their heads down as Morin Leblanc, 28, spoke.

Morin Leblanc, convicted of criminal negligence causing death in an alcohol-related case, said every morning he looks at himself in the mirror, he tries to see through their lives. He said words cannot express his remorse and guilt.

Not a day goes by, he said, without thinking of Alexandra Dodger, by all accounts an inspiring 27-year-old McGill law grad.

In fact, he told court that, in his worst moments, it’s Alexandra Dodger who “pulls me out of these dark places.” He said her memory gives him strength to move forward in life.

Morin Leblanc then sat back down in the front pew next to his mother in Ontario Superior Court Room No. 31 and broke down in tears.

The court also heard that Morin Leblanc told his psychologist he felt like a “monster who killed;” someone he said, who didn’t deserve to live.

Earlier at the sentencing hearing, the court heard a touching victim-impact statement from a friend who walked home with Dodger moments before she was killed.

Jensen Kettle-Verleyen wrote that her life stopped when she heard her friend had died. She couldn’t sleep. She had trouble eating. “I feel like I’ve been in limbo … I stopped taking care of myself.”

She’s been in therapy for a long time and still gets panic attacks when her boyfriend is a few minutes late.

In her statement, she said there was a lot to miss.

“(Alexandra) was obsessed with making the world a better place. She was the most selfless person I have ever met,” she wrote.

She had a good sense of humour, loved fashion and wanted to carve out a social justice career in law.

Her friend still has nightmares. So does her killer.

He still has trouble sleeping and eating, and has a deep fear for his safety behind bars.

The only thing the Crown and defence agreed on Thursday was that no sentence can bring the victim back to life.

Defence lawyer Lorne Goldstein told court his client was anything but an enterprise criminal or gangster. He told court there’s nothing prison can do for a young professional without a criminal background. The lawyer asked the judge for a maximum sentence of two years less a day, which would be provincial time.